Warning: This article discusses issues of child sexual exploitation and mass killing and may be distressing for some people.<\/p>\n
A Hawke’s Bay man who distributed “repugnant” videos and images showing the sexual abuse of children, and who was dubbed a national security threat by police for planning a mass killing, can now be publicly identified.<\/p>\n
A court order suppressing the name of Ronndog Elliot Keefe, 22,\u00a0 during court proceedings against him lapsed at 5pm today.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Keefe, of Flaxmere in Hastings, collected and distributed thousands of videos and images of young children being sexually abused and violated by adults.<\/p>\n
The self-declared “soldier of Christ” was also planning to attack either a mall or a mosque and kill men by stabbing them.<\/p>\n
Police have told the courts he intended this to be a suicide mission.<\/p>\n
Police searched Keefe’s house in September 2024 and found two bladed weapons – a machete and a bayonet.<\/p>\n
Crown lawyer Megan Mitchell, who prosecuted Keefe’s case in the Napier District Court, said Keefe intended to target Muslim men particularly.<\/p>\n
Keefe pleaded guilty last year to 13 charges, including knowingly distributing child exploitation material, possessing objectionable publications, exposing a young person to indecent material, threatening to kill and failing to comply with a computer search.<\/p>\n
In December, Judge Richard Earwaker jailed him for five years and four months, and placed him on the child sex offender register for eight years.<\/p>\n
Permanent name suppression declined<\/p>\n
Keefe’s lawyer Matt Dixon asked for name suppression to continue even after the sentencing.\u00a0 In part, he argued that naming him in public might impair his prospects for rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
Permanent name suppression was opposed by NZME.<\/p>\n
Judge Earwaker declined to order permanent suppression, saying Keefe’s case did not meet the threshold of being likely to cause him extreme hardship.<\/p>\n
Keefe distributed extreme child sexual exploitation material while communicating with members of an international online extremist group known as 764.<\/p>\n
He had multiple online profiles and has said he wanted to be seen by the group as an “edge lord” – someone who posts shocking or extreme material on the internet.<\/p>\n
Judge Earwaker has described the images and videos as “horrific” and “repugnant”, causing physical and emotional harm to the children involved and helping create more demand for such material.<\/p>\n
Keefe had a total of 93 hours of video in his collection. One of his devices contained more than 54,000 media files.<\/p>\n
He also contacted a 13-year-old girl online and got her to send him sexually explicit images of herself by pretending to be a boy close to her age and offering to give her gaming tokens.<\/p>\n
His threat to kill people came to police attention after a tip-off to New Zealand authorities from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, which had been alerted by a young American woman with whom Keefe had been communicating for about two years.<\/p>\n
The American woman was not the girl he coerced into sending him images.<\/p>\n
Court documents say he told the young woman in the US “repeatedly and in detail” about his desire to commit a mass killing, wanting to copy high-profile terrorist and extremist attacks to gain public notoriety.<\/p>\n
A police summary of facts said Keefe’s “extremist ideologies” and his wish to conduct a mass stabbing event were considered a “national security threat”.<\/p>\n
Keefe had written in a diary that he was radicalised at the age of 19 and was “a soldier of Christ, his country, people and religion”.<\/p>\n
– By Ric Stevens,\u00a0 Open Justice reporter for\u00a0 NZ Herald\u00a0<\/p>\n
Where to get help<\/p>\n
Need to Talk? Free call or text 1737 any time to speak to a trained counsellor, for any reason<\/p>\n
Lifeline: 0800 543 354 or text HELP to 4357<\/p>\n
Suicide Crisis Helpline: 0508 828 865 \/ 0508 TAUTOKO. This is a service for people who may be thinking about suicide, or those who are concerned about family or friends<\/p>\n
Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 or text 4202<\/p>\n
Samaritans: 0800 726 666<\/p>\n